Road to California 2008
I was bedazzled by the quilts, the shopping, and low on energy this year, so I apologize--I didn't write down the makers of the quilts. None of these are mine, and some may be found on the website for the quilt conference . They usually post the winners as well as put out a CD for purchase.

I focused my camera a lot on the quilting this go-round, interested to see if the quilters escaped the "stipple jail" and broke out some new patterns, new ways of filling in background. I also tried to find the new, different and interesting as I feel my quilting could benefit from a fresh way of looking at things.

The quilt on the left uses black tulle for an interesting effect. The snippets of fabric are layered in, then covered with a veil of tulle and quilted. More bright dabs of colors were laid over that and quilted down, creating an interesting foreground-background effect. (As always, click to enlarge.)


A faculty exhibit? The quilter depicts scenes from Australia in an interesting way.

I loved this one--looking up into treetops.

Fish! A great scrappy quilt.

Detail of fish. Notice the interior patterns on the fish--many variations: nine-patches, strip-piecing, diamonds. The variety keep the eye moving.

The colors of this applique quilt are not the least bit traditional.

Nor is the subject matter, nor the quilting.


Butterfly Bonanza?

We both liked the quilt as it said "hot chocolate, good movie and a quiet night," of course, while cuddled up in this.

How can someone not be drawn to this razzle-dazzle quilt?

A woman made this quilt in honor of her husband's car and their road trip. The quilt docent was enthusiastically lifting it up to show everyone the back. After admiring it, we walked around the corner.

I guess that last time she was a little too enthusiastic, as a series of quilts and frames and drapes came tumbling down. I looked over and she was standing there, still holding the corner of the quilt, looking shell-shocked. Many tried to help, but the show officials came and made it right.

Cinq Terre--one of the places Dave and I want to go to in Italy.

Perfection in a Bear's Paw.

This orangey quilt vibrated right off the wall--the use of the cool blues and greens really made it pop.

Pictorial quilts struck it big this year in the awards.


Look Ma--no stippling!

Now you don't see it. . .

Now you do. This represents the four seasons--the quilting was stunning.

Dave and I had been to see Cristo's The Gates in 2005 in New York City's Central Park. They had a quilt there that responded to that amazing art installation.

Okay, here's some shots we took of the Gates--can't resist.





Now, back to the quilt show.

If I had this, I'd wear it everywhere. Maybe.

A more traditional applique quilt.

There was a special exhibit there about antique aprons--very fun.


The end!

So Where Was I?

Black & White & Catrina All Over

This was the black and white challenge quilt I sent to my guild--got it done, although now as I look at it, I think: I've got to change than, fix that, move that over to that side. . .

For early birthday fun I went up to see my sister Christine and the Joseph Cornell exhibit in San Francisco. She took me here first: the Asian Art Museum, the converted SF library. I loved the scale of grand against intimate. We saw an exhibit of dress designers from Japan, who certainly pushed, pulled, extruded and pleated the proverbial edge.

The grand staircase--the light was dim as it was raining out and the focus is a touch blurry--but grand nonetheless.

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do--do it with they might."
The carved aphorisms make me think.

Christine liked the one over the opposite doorway:
"Silence at the proper season is wisdom and better than any speech."

Downstairs a trio of visitors led the museum-goers in the creation of a rubbing, using mulberry paper, an inked plate, and some elbow grease.

Getting the corner stamped with vermilion ink.

He's trying a different technique here, of making an impression print--draping a moist piece of paper over a mold, and pouncing it to give it shape and form.

Christine creates hers.

Next to MOMA, where we met Rachelle for my birthday lunch and to see the Cornell. This pictured exhibit had a prismatic rainbow constructed on the bridge. Click to see it close-up.
The Cornell was intriguing, fascinating, and made me think about the intersection of text and visual illustration. They showed for one of his boxes he wrote out his concept, highlighting phrases, which then were translated into the visual elements of his box. I don't know how many other times he did this, but it neatly joined a circle for me.

Every time I think I have no time to spend in a museum, I find myself wanting to prolong a visit, wanting to talk art/idea/creativity. This feeling is heightened when in the company of fascinating people, like the two women who were with me that day.

Right now I'm quilting, trying to finish my Black and White Guild Challenge before tomorrow. To keep myself company, I'm listing to talks from TED--which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.

The talks are held in Monterrey California and only 1,000 people can attend the live sessions. I first heard about this from David Pogue's Tech Tuesday column, when he was an attendee (he gave a shorter 3 minute "in-between" talk). The rest of the talks run about 18 minutes and draw from a varied range of speakers from all different fields. By the way, if you want to attend, it's $6,000 a ticket. If you are invited to talk, you get a free pass.

Online, head to ted.com/tedtalks. However I'm streaming it down via iTunes as a podcast. Head to Higher Education (show all), then TEDtalks.

Before

After

Thanks, David!

Cool sunrise the other morning.

Dave had to rush in the house to get ready for school (he had to give a final), but I lingered outside to watch the sky ripen.

Paper Shops in Venice, Italy

Obviously one too many tourists had bugged them. This was the sign in their window.

They were closed while we were there--on vacation from all those tourists, I suppose--so I snapped these photos through the window.

The name of the paper shops we hit were: Il Papiro (there's several locations) and Carteria Tasotti, on Calle de la Bissa (or at least that's what it says on their receipt). If you try to walk from San Marco Square through to the Rialto Bridge, these two shops are on opposite sides of the lane from each other, just down a bit.

The shop in the pictures above was on a lane if you were trying to get the Accademia bridge from San Marco (parallel to the Grand Canal).

What's the difference between lucky and blessed?

What's the origin of each? How was it originally used? I started thinking about this after hearing the phrase "Yes, the Lord has really blessed me" too many times in church, usually in response to a compliment about their children, or other such tangibles.

Joan Armatrading has a song that begins:
I'm lucky
I'm lucky
I can walk under ladders
Yes I'm so lucky
That I'm as lucky
As me

Richard Wiseman thinks that he can help you find some luck; in fact he's broken it down into four parts. I'm sure if you want to part with some money, he'll share the secret with you in his book.

Another question: Does my good luck in achieving X-quantity imply that you have bad luck if you haven't achieved it? The X-quantity could be a good marriage, children who are happy and adjusted and nice, grandchildren, wealth, health, or good teeth, ankles and bones. We might as well add in being cancer-free.


Wikipedia posits that luck refers to that which happens beyond a person's control. This view incorporates phenomena that are chance happenings, a person's place of birth for example, but where there is no uncertainty involved, or where the uncertainty is irrelevant. Within this framework one can differentiate between three different types of luck:

1. Constitutional luck, that is, luck with factors that cannot be changed (place of birth and genetic constitution are typical examples)
2. Circumstantial luck, that is, luck with factors that are haphazardly brought on, such as accidents and epidemics
3. Ignorance luck, that is, luck with factors one does not know about. Examples can be identified only in hindsight.

If I say I'm blessed, does that imply I did something to cause that? Is blessed different than lucky? Is blessed an adjective, or a state of being?

WordNet says it's an adjective meaning highly favored or fortunate (for example, by divine grace) as in "our blessed land" or "the blessed assurance of a steady income."

Blessed is also used informally as an intensifier in a phrase; "not a blessed dime"; "I'll be darned (or blessed) if I'll do any such thing"; "he's a blessed fool," "Bless me if it isn't my old friend!"

If I were a Roman Catholic and proclaimed to be one of the blessed, I'd be worthy of veneration. I think the term I hear is more along the lines of the final definitions: enjoying the bliss of heaven and characterized by happiness and good fortune.

But doesn't fortune imply luck?

Does one word imply a spiritual dimension, and does the other reside in a secular world with rabbit's feet, four-leaf clovers and found pennies?

I guess my answer to above is blessed is personal, luck is not. Today while pondering and writing this post, I received a package from someone who has known me for a very long time. I opened it, set it up to gaze at it. One might say I'm lucky to have such a friend, lucky to receive such a gift. But this was a deeply personal gesture of sharing, and it came because of our relationship--honed, crafted and tempered over years of thrust-and-feint, forgiveness and kindness. In an instant, the answer to the question was made apparent. Blessed happens on a much deeper level, and bandying it around in response to compliments is a trite use of the word. Perhaps luck is more appropriate to that scenario.

But blessed in the higher sense comes from the most extra-ordinary feelings of inclusion, of being given gifts for no other reason than the giver is good, is kind, and loves unconditionally. The feeling and emotions that spill out are a sign of the profound and mysterious, the unexplainable. Blessed is something, then, that you can only know, can't easily articulate, and can happen even in the midst of what others might call bad luck.

And that's the difference.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Alex contemplates how to put the ornament on, or if he should take it off and put it somewhere else. He was a great help, as was his father.


Andrew just likes to take them off. His big contribution was shoving a plastic water bottle into the tree--found when he started opening all the cupboards in the kitchen while his mother cooked us a delicious dinner.

The tree all lit up.

Christmas has come to the bedroom as well.

Gerard's one of my students in my English comp class. That's not a ball at the end of the string--that's a sleeping yo-yo.

He wrote an "Explaining a Concept" paper on yo-yo-ing and offered to give a demonstration in my class. He was a hit, as you can see. Turns out he's the 2007 Southern California yo-yo-ing champion. My favorite trick was the yo-yo with a large die on one end, that he flipped over and back and around and everywhere--not attached to his finger, but free-falling.

One young mother in the class wants to book him for her son's birthday party. I'm trying to think of what event I could host, so I can hire him as well.

Dots, Three

Alice's picture of Zurich, lit up for Christmas

An illustration for holiday cooking from the newspaper

cool Black Hole picture